Well, I finally made it through my chemotherapy program and now it's on to start the radiation portion of my treatment plan. After meeting with the orientation nurse at the Oakland Kaiser facility I was informed that I would need between 18 and 20 sessions. That sounded like a LONG time until I was told that the radiation would be administered daily Monday through Friday until I reached my 20 or so treatment sessions (approximately 4 weeks). She explained that each session usually only takes about 10 minutes. Of that 10 minutes where I would be laying on the table only about 1 minute of it would be spent receiving the actual radiation. They would precisely target the radiation beams on the exact areas of my chest that needed treatment once from the front and once from the back each session. The other 9 minutes would be spent measuring and aligning my body to the exact specifications programmed in the computer.
Next it was on to the possible and probable side-effects I might encounter. The main ones were a sun-burned and/or itching feeling in the general areas where the radiation would be entering my body (in my case the upper chest and back). The nurse gave me a list of topical creams and lotions that were recommended for reducing these symptoms and I was told to begin using them nightly after my first radiation treatment session and not to wait until the symptoms inevitably arose. The second main side-effect of my radiation therapy due to a close proximity to my chest would be a sore throat type feeling. It is not uncommon for patients receiving radiation treatment in the upper chest or shoulder area to have an esophageal irritation. Lastly, there would be a cumulative fatigue factor that would build as the treatments progressed in number. This one worries me a little as I am still quite worn out from the fatigue built up during my chemotherapy treatment. After expressing this to my doctor he said that hopefully as the radiation based fatigue was ramping up the chemo based fatigue would be tapering off and I wouldn't notice any real difference. We'll see.
